9 yr old boy wins right to bring My Little Pony book bag to school

posted at 4:01 pm on March 22, 2014 by Jazz Shaw

Even in a business where we tend to dive off the deep end of silliness from time to time, this one may stretch the definition of Breaking News just a tad. Dr. James Joyner highlights a story out of North Carolina (all of you who had already guessed “Florida” lose this time) regarding an elementary school boy, Grayson Bruce by name, who was kept out of school for bringing a book bag emblazoned with the popular children’s series, My Little Pony. But after national attention was drawn to the situation, the school has relented and will allow Grayson to return, book bag and all.

Grayson Bruce’s My Little Pony backpack will return, and with it may come new initiatives to prevent bullying in local schools.

Buncombe County Schools administrators met Thursday with the mother of Grayson Bruce, the 9-year-old boy who was propelled into the national spotlight this week after saying he was prevented from carrying his “My Little Pony” backpack to school because administrators told him it “triggered bullying.”…

Buncombe County Schools administrators released a joint statement Thursday, saying they would work with Bruce to make “a safety transition plan and an allowance for Grayson to bring the bookbag to school.”

“We have appreciated the opportunity to meet with the Bruce family and discuss the issues. We sincerely regret that the issue of being told to leave the bookbag at home was perceived as blaming Grayson. While that was not the intent, the perception became reality. We support Grayson bringing the bookbag to school.” the statement said.

It turns out that the school didn’t have a ban on all things My Little Pony related, (like they do with toy guns) nor were they conducting some sort of War on Bronies. In this case, they apparently felt that a boy with such a book bag was likely to get the snot beaten out of him by other young boys and they were going to protect him by keeping him and his bag out of school. Is that a good policy? Joyner’s take:

Yes, it’s wrong to bully a little boy for wearing a backpack marketed to little girls. (My five-year-old daughter loves My Little Pony, especially Rainbow Dash.) And, yes, the ban was effectively blaming the victim. But the fact of the matter is that kids of that age can be vicious, bullying and mob behavior here was quite predictable, and it’s impossible for teachers to be everywhere at once. It was just easier to tell Grayson to leave the backpack at home, removing the immediate catalyst.

Schools do this sort of thing all the time and have forever. For decades now, schools have banned clothing with potentially inflammatory messages or even banned wearing hats and other clothing in colors locally associated with various street gangs. The fact that people ought not react viciously to other people’s free expression is outweighed, especially with children, by the probability that they will.

It’s hard to tell from the coverage precisely what the parents were thinking when they agreed to send Grayson off to class with that bag. I suppose it’s possible that they felt they were striking a blow for gender neutrality. (Unisex bathrooms in public school, anyone?) Or maybe they just weren’t paying attention and didn’t notice that their boy was setting himself up as a target. A far less likely scenario is that the parents were taking a page out of Johnny Cash’s book, based on his song, A Boy Named Sue.

Father: You’re letting him go to school with THAT book bag?

Mother: Well, you said he should learn to fight. I reckon that’ll do it.

Anyone who went to public school back in the day and dealt with the various groups of boys there knows how that story ends. A less gentle approach to the question might find that it would turn out to be a teachable moment for the kid no matter how it ended. But I suppose I agree with Joyner, at least to a point. If the parents can’t recognize an invitation to a whooping when they see one, maybe it wasn’t so out of line for the school to step in before Grayson wound up black and blue on the playground. Of course, given the litigious nature of our society, the school was going to wind up losing on this one anyway. And now that the parents have turned their son’s situation into a national news story, he’s probably toast out near the swing sets when he goes back anyway.

This wasn’t a case for new government action, changes in rules or forcing a bend in the social order. This was a situation which could have been avoided with a little common sense, but I’m afraid that ship has already sailed.

As usual Jazz misses the whole point here. This is about the gender confusion indoctrination required to ensure that an ever growing percentage of the American people accept sexual deviation as a social norm.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and can also win new ones if they complain a lot.

Boxing instruction… at the least, a few lessons in a dojo. Learn how to take a stance and yell “Kiyah!!!!!” Never back down and invite the biggest one to take a shot, remarking “When you go down, the others will be easy…”
.
Buck up, Bucko!!!!!!

I’m pretty sure this is about deconstructing gender identification, the greater acceptance of homosexuality in society depends on there being no significant gender identification in the majority of the population. Sexual intercourse has to just be sex, not gender related or defined.

There was some kid in Ventura that they allowed to wear makeup and girls clothes to high school and he ended up getting shot. I felt sorry for the shooter because that is an age where kids feel uncomfortable with their sexuality and the kid shot was going around telling tales that he had sex with the kid. I blame the adults and the kids.

I tried to get my teenage daughter to wear a boy’s American Eagles T-Shirt. The reason? The boys shirts looked like regular T-Shirts, the girls were skin tight, form fitting and so short a girls bare middle would show. (translation from a mom…me…slutty)
She refused.
I said, “The boy’s shirts are just regular t-shirts. why can’t you wear that?”
She said, “Everyone knows AE T-shirts for girls are the short tight ones.”

You should be more concerned with his 28 year old father’s lawsuit against the guys at work that made him feel bad for his MLP bookbag, sweater, hat, and desktop statues of Butterflyturd and Lollypopballs.

If one child hits another child, the first child should be punished. The second child should not be, and if the second child hits back to protect himself, (s)he still shouldn’t be punished.

The kid should be allowed to bring any backpack to school that he wants. This is similar to the American flag wearing white kids who wore flag shirts to school on May 5 in Arizona. They should be able to wear it, and if someone causes trouble because of it, the instigators should be punished.

People who hit others should be punished. People who sneer and laugh at others should not be punished. People who are hit or are sneered or laughed at should not be punished.

Why is this so fricken hard for administrators to figure out?

My sister got hit by another girl in school. My sister beat the snot out of her. They both got in trouble. That was wrong. The other girl started it. My sister just finished it and went back to class. She should have been congratulated and sent back to class, especially after it was shown that the other girl was bullying her on facebook and had invited my sister to meet her at an empty lot so they could fight there and my sister declined.

who cares if a boy has a pink mlp backpack? who really cares? why is that a problem, can someone explain?

Sachiko on March 22, 2014 at 4:12 PM

Kids are mean and this seems to be driven by his mother.
A pink my little pony and the first name of Grayson is going to ensure that he is going to go into high school with plenty of methods for dealing with bullies. He may wind up being an ultimate cage fighter… or a guidance councilor. Either way, the school was wrong pandering to the lowest common denominator, but that’s what they do.

Although the term “Blue Ridge” is sometimes applied exclusively to the eastern edge or front range of the Appalachian Mountains, the geological definition of the Blue Ridge province extends westward to the Ridge and Valley area, encompassing the Great Smoky Mountains, the Great Balsams, the Roans, the Brushy Mountains (a “spur” of the Blue Ridge) and other mountain ranges.

Jazz, thank you for the “boy named sue” reference. If you watched his interview, you know what will happen if it comes down to “get tough or die” for this kid.

The school was right. Don’t throw an idealist to the wolves and assume his kind demeanor and friendly nature will soothe the savage beast. His parents are the real fools here. They are so open-minded that their brains fell out.

If you want to send your boy to school with a “my little pony” bag, at least make sure he knows what is going to happen and why it is going to happen.

lol, yeah Ashville is the Boulder, CO of The Appalachians. Neat town with some great restaurants, but full of patchouli wearing scabies vectors.

Murphy9 on March 22, 2014 at 4:23 PM

I dunno, we used to live in CO and the last time we went Boulder it wasn’t that bad. Typical college town.

Asheville has changed so much. We were downtown at great restaurant, it was a beautiful evening and we decided to walk around after dinner. There happened to be an “arts” festival going on. I had no idea rolling doobie is an art form. Apparently panhandling and not taking showers are too.

You know, it’s funny. I used to brown bag it a lot, too. That lunch box was the only one I can recall having. I think, about that time, my mom went back to work full time. We only lived a few blocks from the school. Far too close to have bus service. That meant I had to walk to school, probably even when it rained. I think I must have had it because the box was more practical with the weather than a paper bag was.

Used to get the cafeteria lunch sometimes, too. Now, that was gruesome.

If the parents can’t recognize an invitation to a whooping when they see one, maybe it wasn’t so out of line for the school to step in before Grayson wound up black and blue on the playground.

“Maybe” it wasn’t “so out of line” for the school to step in? Really? :massive facepalm:

As a conservative, traditional, Christian dad, I know better than to expect the public schools to follow MY standards, WHICH IS WHY MY WIFE AND I HOMESCHOOL OUR KIDS! When you send your kid off to the public school system, you give up a great deal of control over what is and is not acceptable behavior for your child (AND STOP COMPLAINING AND SEND THEM ELSEWHERE IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, LIKE I DO, sacrificing one parent’s entire salary to do just that), including quite broadly in the areas of clothing (you can’t dress like a whore or gang member; deal with it!), speech (you can’t cuss out your peers or adults; deal with it!), movement (you can’t be here/there/anywhere you want during the school day, you have to be there/here/somewhere else now, for class/assembly/lunch/bus ride home; deal with it!), physicality (you can’t punch/push/hug/kiss here; deal with it!), curriculum (we’re not teaching this/that/the other thing here, so you’ll have to study that at home/church/synagogue/mosque; deal with it!), etc., etc.

This kid is not a ‘victim’ of the public school because they asked him to leave a bag at home. The school has to work with the ‘cards’ (students) which are in their ‘hand’ (at their school). That includes many, many, many, MANY kids whose parent(s) do not give a flying rip about their child’s behavior, dress, academic progress, or the like and simply see the public system as a laundromat to clean and press their incorrigible child and correct for the lousy parenting their provide outside of school while providing a taxpayer subsidized babysitting service (and God forbid you close school for inclement weather. After all, THOSE PARENTS DON’T WANT TO BE WITH THEIR KIDS during the day!). If schools are going to be able to teach at all, these kinds of silly distractions (and it is indeed a FRIGGING BOOK BAG after all) need to be kept to a minimum, so the focus can hopefully be on education, not stamping out behavioral fires right and left.

The parents are ultimately to blame, because their kid wouldn’t be a “My Little Pony” addict if they weren’t letting TV and/or the Internet addict him to cartoon marketing. And if you don’t like your local school’s ‘zero tolerance’ policies, you’re to blame (as a member of the public), because it’s people like you (and others) who sue the schools over the consequences incurred by your kids, forcing schools to use NO JUDGMENT AT ALL so as to avoid the appearance of bias or partiality in their enforcement and thereby to escape onerous financial damage through idiotic lawsuits.

So then you must completely agree with that other school that banned American flag clothing because it could “incite violence” too, right? Victims shouldn’t be punished, end of story. Is it a bad idea for a boy to show up with a My Little Pony backpack? Yep. Definitely. But if he gets harassed then it’s the schools job to deal with the harassers, not punish the kid because it’s easier. All that does is teach the kid that bullies get their way and no one will stand up for him. Not a message people should be reinforcing.

I’m pretty sure this is about deconstructing gender identification, the greater acceptance of homosexuality in society depends on there being no significant gender identification in the majority of the population. Sexual intercourse has to just be sex, not gender related or defined.

oscarwilde on March 22, 2014 at 4:16 PM

It is blaming human nature. Kids that age do not have the “nuance” that allows for non-conformity of this magnitude and politically opportune sophistication.

Either this kid is WAY more mature than his years or he has been so thoroughly coached that he is essentially brain-washed. I suspect the latter.

That includes many, many, many, MANY kids whose parent(s) do not give a flying rip about their child’s behavior, dress, academic progress, or the like and simply see the public system as a laundromat to clean and press their incorrigible child and correct for the lousy parenting their provide outside of school while providing a taxpayer subsidized babysitting service (and God forbid you close school for inclement weather.

xNavigator on March 22, 2014 at 4:44 PM

Perhaps you should homeschool and stop using the “second” wage to pay for private school…your children may learn proper grammar…not to mention, correct punctuation…

So, when the kids wearing US flags are told not to because it might incite violence, that’s a problem. But when a boy is told he can’t bring a MLP backpack to school because it might incite violence, that’s ok?

So then you must completely agree with that other school that banned American flag clothing because it could “incite violence” too, right? Victims shouldn’t be punished, end of story. Is it a bad idea for a boy to show up with a My Little Pony backpack?Yep. Definitely. But if he gets harassed then it’s the schools job to deal with the harassers, not punish the kid because it’s easier. All that does is teach the kid that bullies get their way and no one will stand up for him. Not a message people should be reinforcing.

Cyhort on March 22, 2014 at 4:46 PM

I would like to point out that the highlighted portion of your post tears apart your whole point because it is not a “bad idea” to wear an American flag to school. These are two completely different scenarios.

Is it a bad idea to act flamboyantly gay in middle school? Yes. If you don’t want to get beat down the second no adults are around. Would you defend him wanting to wear a dress and using the girl’s bathroom as well? (do not complain about going “over the top”, as this is happening as we speak) Or would you lash at out the “bullies” who shamed him for being “different”?

This is about adults pushing an agenda and this kid has no idea what is going on around him.

1) We’re ragging on a 9 year-old kid for being a fan of “My Little Pony”? I’m a fan of “Phineas and Ferb”. Have a PaF ringtone on my phone. Have four PaF figures on my desk. Have a t-shirt. Want to make fun of me for it? Have a ball. Doesn’t fash me a bit. I’m not a tool.

2) We’re bagging on his parents for letting him take a bookbag with something he really digs to school? Because…it’s a *great* thing to teach a kid he needs to hide the things he loves if he has even the faintest inclination that someone out there won’t like it, yes? That’s the thing we want parents to teach their kids?

3) We’re *not* jumping ugly on the school for openly admitting they can’t control the bulk of their students? Sure, every school is going to have its bullies, but the tenor of the news coverage tells me the school is afraid this one kid is going to get dogpiled for loving a cartoon. If you have that little control over the kids in your school, you are incompetent. Let’s see what we can do about getting the school administration right before we rag on a little kid.

Either this kid is WAY more mature than his years or he has been so thoroughly coached that he is essentially brain-washed. I suspect the latter.

Mord on March 22, 2014 at 4:49 PM

Or he’s just 9 years old, kind of naive and not very social, and thought the ponies were cute. Not everything is about gender identity politics, especially at that age. We used to say: it’s just a phase, he’ll grow out of it. Of course, the parents are idiots.

His parents are the ones pushing his name out there. This is activism on their part and they are using the kid to push their agenda.
sharrukin on March 22, 2014 at 4:54 PM

I see. I haven’t read all of the details, but I am infuriated thinking that a kid could be harassed because of his choice of lunchbox. I think it is outrageous. He should be able to bring whatever he wants for a lunch box. Now, if the parents are using this to push their little political or social agendas, then shame on them. I don’t like fighting political battles using kids.

. If the parents can’t recognize an invitation to a whooping when they see one, maybe it wasn’t so out of line for the school to step in before Grayson wound up black and blue on the playground.

-Jazz Shaw

How is that bag an invitation for a whopping? I don’t think you give children that age enough credit.

Oh for God’s sake! Put all the little snowflakes in uniforms, make clear backpacks mandatory for all, and let them figure out a way to show their originality that doesn’t make a mini-Broni into a national news story. We manage to solve that Europe about to go up in flames thing? Fixed the economy? Found the missing 777?

Buncombe County North Carolina with its volatile mix of hippies, lesbians, and fundamentalist Christians, has long been a hot bed of cultural warfare. I come from the county just west of it. My favorite was when the Jewish mayor who looked like a witch declared the week of Halloween “Earth religions week”. The Christian started demanding a Jesus week. And the ACLU refused to get involved–which is either hypocritical or they were afraid that they would be inappropriately laughing during any legal proceedings.

2) We’re bagging on his parents for letting him take a bookbag with something he really digs to school? Because…it’s a *great* thing to teach a kid he needs to hide the things he loves if he has even the faintest inclination that someone out there won’t like it, yes? That’s the thing we want parents to teach their kids?

We also recommend not walking down darkened alleys, not going into the worst part of town waving cash around, not betting on Obama to do the right thing, and not spitting into the wind.

3) We’re *not* jumping ugly on the school for openly admitting they can’t control the bulk of their students?

Jimmie Bise, Jr on March 22, 2014 at 5:04 PM

There is a limit to how much control any group has and that control doesn’t mean he isn’t going to get beaten up…just that the bully will be punished for doing so. He still gets beaten up.

Buncombe County Schools administrators met Thursday with the mother of Grayson Bruce, the 9-year-old boy who was propelled into the national spotlight this week after saying he was prevented from carrying his “My Little Pony” backpack to school because administrators told him it “triggered bullying.”…

According to a recent court ruling, the school has the right to prevent him from bringing this backpack if they think it will cause a disruption – just like the court ruled that a school can prevent students from wearing an American flag on May 5th.

This brings back to when (50’S) school started and men were coming to work with lunch boxes with Bambi, Snow White and other cartoon characters when they arrived at work one would say to the other, “Your kid got a new lunch box huh?” Yup was usually the answer. Beautiful to be a Dad.

If the kid wants to bring a pony book bag to school, he should be able to do so without getting the soup beat out of him daily, or without non stop verbal abuse.

The parents of the other kids should be taught to stop harassing someone who likes something they don’t.

BTW, don’t read liberalism crap into everything. Conservatives at this blog do this constantly, and it drives me nuts (I am a conservative myself).

Just because the boy enjoys something primarily aimed at girls does not mean his parents are left wingers who are indoctrinating him to be “gender neutral.”

When I was a girl, I was a tom boy and enjoyed Bat Man and other things considered boyish (I am feminine and hetero). I was never beat up for liking “boyish” things as a kid. I liked what I liked. I thought Bat Man was cool, so I liked Bat Man.

This kid just happens to like a pony cartoon because he finds it funny or interesting or whatever. He should not have to give up his pony book bag, his hobbies, or hide them while at school, because a bunch of Neanderthals attend his school.

We support Grayson bringing the bookbag to school.” the statement said.

So if Grayson wants to go to school in ballgown with a tiara would they be supportive of that too? With, of course, the appropriate a safety transition plan (whatever the hell that is).

But can you imagine the furor from these people if young Grayson decided to show up with a backpack emblazoned with the American flag or pro-Second Amendment sentiment? I’m guessing that would result in immediate expulsion and call to child services on bad parents.

She ought to remember as she frequently gets a spankin right here on good ol HA.

arnold ziffel on March 22, 2014 at 5:14 PM

In fairness, I (and I think most) tend to respond only when disagreeing. I actually agree with bluegill about partly blaming the parents for not staying anonymous. I shudder to think at some of the stupid things I did as a elementary school kid being made national news.